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I met Jess at Shepperton Studios wedding fair, and knew from then that her Christmas wedding would be so fun! Getting ready in the hotel by the church she only had a short walk to marry her fiancée Joe, the old Shepperton square is so cute, with the hotel backing into the river and Christmas trees decorating the buildings and church, it was beautiful.

The weather was absolutely perfect, beautiful sun, crisp air and clear skies, after the “I dos” the guests threw the confetti and then grabbed themselves some hot chips and mulled wine! Jess and Joe has always said that they weren’t overly fussed about getting the static formal family shots and wanted the focus to be on candids, which is always music to my ears. They only wanted a few couple shots by the river, so whilst their guests were sipping on mulled wine we walked 1 minute down the road to grab a little quiet moment together before heading back, at which time the bus taking the guests to the reception venue had turned up!

Their children issued wedding bus tickets to the guests as they stepped on board, Christmas songs were blasted throughout the trip and beer glasses chinked together - I absolutely love getting guests to travel together, it keeps the energy and celebrations going and everyone always loves it!

Shepperton studios had their Christmas party the same week as Jess and Joes big day, the theme for the party was Alice in Wonderland, and they fully embraced it for their wedding! Why not!?! You get your whole wedding styled for free! It was amazing to rock up to the venue from the bus to be greeted by statues of cards, mood lighting, wonderland quotes on the walls, moss and greenery styled tea sets amongst everything else! It really did feel as if you were going down the rabbit hole!

The speeches brought tears to the guests eyes and the magic of the day was topped off by an awesome chair trick, that I’ve stolen for myself to use(!) and the first dance and father/daughter dance were truly magical with 5 confetti canons being popped throughout - if you’re humming and har-ing about confetti canons during your first dance - DO IT!

“Have I gone mad? I'm afraid so. You're entirely Bonkers. But I will tell you a secret, All the best people are.”

This was such a beautifully relaxed wedding to photograph. When I first met Celia and Thomas it was clear that the main thing to capture was just fun, happiness and natural reactions of their friends and family.

They were getting officially hitched earlier in the day with their kids in tow and only wanted their party celebration captured. This was later in the afternoon when the kids had been dropped home - letting the adults play! I turned up as their guests were arriving, they used a beautiful old hall in Richmond that they had made their own, with hanging fairy lights, a help yourself open bar, hand made bunting, a pizza truck, old school rock band and a 50’s tribute singer! I would expect no less from a bride and groom who were so cool and chilled, donning shorts and a red dress for their celebration.

They mentioned during the pre wedding consultation that they didn’t really have any pictures of just the two of them and would like a few, but they weren’t keen on posing or smiling for the camera and wanted to spend the majority of their time with their friends. So making sure that we spent only 10 minutes away, we went for a little walk around the grounds with their drinks and grabbed a few natural shots of just the two of them. They laughed and joked, caught up on guest gossip and really enjoyed the little bit of time together. It’s so important to do this as for the majority of the day you are like ships in the night!

Returning to the hall they had speeches and pizza, as the sun set, the bands lasers and smoke machines started (setting off the fire alarm!) and they danced long into the night - it was a dream to capture all of the fun! I know that their life together will be one filled with love and laughter - what a fabulous way to live!